same mistake - LESSON

Today I made the same poor judgement on BA as I did yesterday(inverse) on QCOM. I'm trying to buy a pullback of the gap/go. But I'm actually going in on more than a pullback. 

Yesterday, QCOM was supposed to be a bear play but it opened with a strong bull surge that I tried to short. Today, BA was supposed to be a bull play but I tried to buy a too-big drop. A drop, not a pullback. I should have passed.

For comparison, QCOM yesterday

penalty box

I'm in the penalty box this week after tilt on NFLX Friday for max loss. It's been a long time since I tilted, but I should never assume I'm immune. I am trading 1/10 my usual size this week, but already I've broken a rule on QCOM by yanking my intended initial stop. Maybe I need to paper trade tomorrow.

What I did right today, though, was trading "best setups". Not that they played out for me, but...

RIVN 

Setup - Gap below level

Entry - Strong open down

Management - initial stop above signal bar. Stopped partial on 2 bar reversal, took smaller target and tighter stop when I got the chance.

QCOM - for a short, but it was inexplicably stronger than the market. Is this one of the stocks people love to buy when it's hit? Or did wells fargo downgrade it so they could start buying?

Setup - Gap below level

Entry - I hesitated over really strong opening move, but wanted to short reversal down below vwap. 

Management - Initial stop 117.93, above mini range. Yanked that, then really tested my luck as market ran down without QCOM. Then WTF did I give it so much room? "Logically" because my gap and go is supposed to go. So I gave it room. But I gave it even too much more room.

Distractions

Household stuff, got to my desk late today. Didn't do thorough prep. 

WYNN seemed to be making a move. It paid then failed. That's why I take partials!

fizzle

I had 2 amazing opening trades. Long SPY, short AMZN as the market ripped up and dropped out in the opening 15-30 min. Then QQQ didn't break that range the rest of the day. SPY broke above, but barely, and gave it back. 

By 10:04 I had all green day, solid gains. Guess what happened next? Instead of shutting down my platform, I kept watching the market while journaling and saw a "great" setup....and gave it all back. All of it? Hello?! 

I should never have been in, so I went full size and then scaled around it? At least go smaller if I can't resist! A total waste of my time and money.

Anyway, summary journaling since I'm disgusted with myself but need to record it.

grind down

 Today (as of 1:50) is a big down day, but it has felt like a grind. There was a huge flush in the opening, then a 90+ min grind sideways before the next flush. I had maybe more than average tickers, but I had a lot of exits as I tried to lock some profits but still ride through chop in the index trades. One 0dte trade in the chop was a strong reminder that I don't want to run out of time, so I went back to 1dte. 

Again today I'm at my desk a lot longer than I like to be. I had an opening loss that I felt compelled to reverse. If I could just make that money without the losers... !

The literal worst thing about a trading day like today is the annotating and journaling. I should keep this in mind when I'm tempted to take too many trades or stay at my desk too long. 🤣

Market continues to grind down. I'm fried (esp after journaling), so there's no way I'm going back in!

SI

Setup- Gap below st level

Entry- Turning back down after pop

Management - It blew through my desired initial stop before I could enter it, so I took ndh stop, which gave a bigger than desired stop. Spreads were big here, so I had a small position. Why not just pass? After the fact, pass seems like a good idea.

RCL

Setup - Gap below st level

Entry - puts below opening micro level.

Management - Initial stop ndh. Thankfully I got a pltgt before it bounced. Rode the bounce but as I tightened my last stop, it grabbed me out before another leg down. Still, when I pass on those, I'm otherwise likely to eat it. I got MY money.

GOOGL

Setup - nms, callout on tradertvlive and I liked the action

Entry - short ndl

Management. Initial stop above the bear fin preceding my entry. Then I tightened my stop irrationally tight and stopped out just in time to miss the dummmmp!

SPY

Trade #1 calls Setup - After a big dump to the 20dma, it looked like it was stabilizing. If SPY was going to be strong today, that would be a perfect place for a reversal. Ah! But I'm not good at trading reversals (I say to myself)... so what (I say to myself), and regret it as I very often do. 

Entry - I waited for a slight higher low, then bought calls. Initial stop was ndl, then I saw other things weakening and decided I don't want to give it that much room. Prefer to flip it...

Trade #2 puts Setup - Continuation down

Entry - after I exited calls, I guess all the other longs jumped ship too, so there was a surge down. Waited for the bounce, then shorted. 

Management - Initial stop above the previous minute high (recipe for overtrading but here it worked). Got my target. Rode a too-big bounce, then decided I didn't want to sit in midday chop and lose time -- 0dte always seems like a good idea when I enter, but it's not a good idea -- so I tightened stops on partials to get out.

IWM

After exiting SPY puts I was still greedy. Reevaluate indexes for weakness and I assessed IWM had the most potential for further downside (see below)

Entry - break below level

Management - Initial stop above the fin. Got some pltgts, had to shave some off near b/e, but really wanted to ride it for the daily breakdown. Agonizing wait! Then traded around IWM price levels for targets and stop areas.

preempting and oversizing

Market opened inside with a bearish bias. Big economic announcement expected at 10am. Frequent arrogant mistake: I thought I could get a quick trade off before the announcement. Correct mentality would have been... no moves are going to really happen before the announcement, I should wait.

^LESSON

Going back to an older format to try to focus on skills. Last trade was definitely trade of day on UAL.

TSLA

Setup - gap down against green bar. 

Entry - breakdown of opening range, breaking vwap

Management - stop above igniting range.

Comments - at first not sorry to be out. Later the short did play out. Of course I should stop, but perhaps I should have found another chance to re-enter. In reality, it didn't do what it was "supposed" to, so I stopped watching it.

QQQ 0dte

Setup - nms.

Entry - break above opening range

Management - initial stop 290.59, below igniting range. When it stalled at the first top (a premkt level) and other watchlist fading, I yanked a smidge. In retrospect not enough. Rode one bounce down to vwap, but then raised my stop. How did I lose so much while exiting ~around my entry? I bought on a surge, so option price was exaggerated. I lost some time and the option was shrinking before the ISM number. 

UAL

Setup - gap (inside) then trade above short term consolidation

Entry - looking to break the box. 

Management - Initial stop below day low. 

This is the one I should have waited (obv! in retrospect) until after the announcement. When it held and then showed real strength after the ism dump, I found a chance to add. Now I'm oversize. Hoped for a really big move, so I took only half the original position at pltgt, leaving 3/4 my position which I shaved of in tiny bits until I gave up. It got to an equal high to the Nov 15 high, it had climbed a steep trendline and I dumped for the tl break.

After my close, it went up much more, but I don't think I would have gotten very much more out of the option. There was approx 10% spread in the option, so I traded a bit scared. No regrets for a really nice trade. I got my piece. Peace!

hard day for easy money

I had nice gains today, but I let the last little runner of SPY calls run all day (illusions of grandeur) and it was a literal pain in my neck.

Accumulation

 Ok yes. In mid October I did mistrust that bottoming bar. 

Since then, follow through. A few really nice green volume bars, that accompany big price-up bars and a net uptrend in play for a good few weeks. None of those accumulation mega-days have been breeched downside. It's the definition of an uptrend, but have we seen THE bottom? Time will tell. 

For now, what is the price volume action saying?

Wisdom teeth and JPow

Last week was short week for Thanksgiving. This week also a wierd week bc H had the oral surgery I've been dreading. It's been ok but tough on sleep and trading schedules. 

Today was full of economic announcements and Fed Chair J.Powell had scheduled remarks at 1:30. Morning trades didn't work, even with all the news. Everyone waited for Powell. I underestimated that and hacked around in the morning. I thought there would be some opening trades, but it was inside all morning and gappers didn't work. 

I was busy with H, so I missed the 1:30 trade and the next 2 legs. But there was a lot of power there so I got the last ~90 min move w SPY calls for stellar returns. Made back the morning hack and much more, all with a small $ input. When those 1DTE options go in the money then plow higher, that's the dream! Glad I gave myself one day out so I didn't sweat so much, even though I'm sure the 0DTE paid more. I traded MY trade.

First try at SPY calls at 2:30 was jumping on extreme strength. No regrets for a small try, and no regrets taking a tight stop on only partial and trying to ride the rest. Also tried puts, even while holding calls, bc sooo overbought. But the strength was truly there so I had more confidence and a better pivot when I went added long again at 2:49. 

It was a bummer to take those small targets... but only in retrospect. The trade was choppy for a while and It was 100% the right thing to pay myself first. Take some gains and let the rest ride. Clockwork! And it paid baby!

nip it! also, brackets?

Did I think I could resist a trading day? Am I addicted? Maybe? It just seems too easy to sit down at my desk for a few minutes and squeeze a few bucks out of the market. However!!... yesterday I made an imprudent IWM trade. It was nms and it messed my gains. I've been kind of slacking on this in general - hacking at nms. Remember: I can't trade just anything.

I am reinstating a zero-tolerance policy on undisciplined trading. Last night I moved 75% of my cash out of my account to make sure to keep it small for several days. It's Thanksgiving week. We're in a several day market range. This market calls for strict discipline.

Several picks this morning, oddly enough. But anticipating a thin market I need to be selective. 

ZM caught my eye early as a big gap down. Opening minute a down bar, but market initially popped. I need a pullback. Then it popped to ndh. Now I want short below vwap. This was trading wild, so I took a starter position. I wanted in, just in case, but wasn't ready for size. 

Before I could even enter my stop order, it popped to ndh (would have stopped me). Another volatile bar, and then I put my stop above that new high. Entered the stop for full position size (in advance of building up). When it dropped below vwap and market was also dropping, I got full size. Stop was already in place. 

Then something very interesting that I want to look into more. The bracket order. Because ZM options trade wild, I opened my initial starter with a 20% profit bracket on it. As the option crossed the profit target I worried the bracket wasn't going to execute. but it executed WAY better. This also happened a previous time I have used a bracket like this. I wonder how it works, but based on 2 instances, a bracket seems better than my usual limit order. I wonder how it works for stops, but generally I don't use option pricing for my stops so I don't see how I could set that in a brackte.

Back to the trade. After I took off a too-small piece for my pltgt, I tightened tolerances and skimmed off other partials. Another push down gave me a great gainer and final bit out on a stop.

After this glorious trade, I implemented another bit of discipline I'm trying to impose and I quit my platform. No data capture, no recap, no looking around. File-Exit. Came back several minutes later to restart, capture data, and quit again. No messing around! Use strong guardrails to backstop myself.

Thanksgiving break

 Today is my only trading day this week. Thanksgiving is Thursday and we're getting hectic quickly. I think the market will be slow.... so I will surely have fomo. 

Ripped off a few quick trades this morning for small net gains. If I could undo one trade it would be IWM. Not just because it was a loser, but because if I'm trading indexes it means I can't find something actually good to trade. Index trades should maybe go on the blacklist.

Gave back gains

Gave my day back today by messing around. 

Did great with TAKING TARGETS on PANW long, M short. Then a loss on AMD long and a hella beauty on TSLA short. 

And then... my fatal flaw... even though I said to myself in the TSLA trade, this is my last trade of the day... Go out on a high.  Then I went ahead and tried spy calls for a loss and spy puts which finally paid on a flush, otherwise it would have been a real loser instead of just give-back.

Need a guardrail to stop myself when my brain says stop, even if I still have itchy fingers. Maybe exit the platform instead of keep watching.

pullback day

 Today we are finally trading below a 4 day range. This is the move down that I was trading for yesterday but it didn't crack. And yet, stuff isn't really dumping. This is a down move in context of a generally up month in which we had a strong bottoming bar and another 2 igniting days. Maybe the move was already in the gap. Important levels are being respected in SPY, QQQ.

I was looking for shorts for daily followthrough: short after a 1 min bounce. I caught TSLA short twice, AMZN short for wins and NVDA short (chips extra strong!) for a loss. Based on the action, I decided to take more conservative exits. Easier targets, more off at the target, tighter stops. That served me well, for a tiny green day bc NVDA full loss.

What a day!

 What a day! I missed it. The market gapped up a few percent this morning (after -2.5% yesterday), and proceeded to trade up like gangbusters all day. An amazing day, but the market still doesn't look good. Maybe, though, this was the follow through day to the Oct 13 bullish bottoming bar I was so skeptical about. Time will tell, but I really hope so.

I got a META short in the opening pullback for +13%, but missed the whole day runup in everything. Not my money today.

META

day after midterm elections

Inside day for the indexes. Don't expect follow through.

Trades were hard to find. I went with 60 min setup on META gapping above oversold levels, and DIS gap below major long term levels on earnings.

META was very volatile. I didn't enter or exit well, result was a very small net loss. 

DIS was also chop. I got a good entry and was able to have a good trade. 

Add to my analysis: inside day = don't expect followthough AND expect choppy trade. Wait for levels. Don't chase.

Mistaken trade amplifies losses

AMD, not necessarily my setup in the first place, so big smack in the face for that. AMD gapping up with NVDA which was way up on earnings. However both gapping into resistance, so I looked to fade. 

First puts stopped. When it reversed off the top, I tried for new puts, but accidentally bought calls. By the time I realized why I wasn't raking it in, I was down pretty bad and cut it. Tried to find a new entry for the puts I really wanted, but I missed the boat for another loss, instead of nice gain I would have had off the top. <grumble>

need more plays

I need to work on new setups in my playbook. Today I took 3 nms trades. Is that wrong? There was a decent rationale for each, and I traded them with good levels. So I think I need to work on more plays like this. It's hard being a breakout trader these days. That was great in a roaring market, but the market is not roaring most of the time. I need plays for all seasons. 

OXY has an incredibly strong daily chart. Earnings tonight. Others in this sector making good gap above levels moves, but OXY probably waiting for earnings (with potential to do LT breakout on that). Yet, this was still an inside day. Played it tight, don't give up 10% gainer.

AAPL also inside, strong relative weakness, short against level after pop/drop. Tight stop resulted 0, but the trade wouldn't have paid much anyway and did reverse hard. Was it worth taking?

SPY 0dte, inside small range open. Short vwap bounce down. 

Why so harsh?

 Sometimes I get feedback that this trading journal is very harsh. I guess it is. 

Especially when I get out of the habit of journalling everything, I tend to just write about the frustrating things I want to vent about (and learn from). 

Annotating and journaling were the missing piece that helped me finally become a successful trader. Introspecting now, maybe this lapse in journaling discipline is part of my current string of frustration. Am I holding myself accountable enough? Have I become overconfident? 🚩

Seems like some weekend catch up would do me good. 

nms

Sloppy trading today. Stabbed at nms on AAPL and UBER. AMD, 2 trades one short/fade was winner and long (my better setup) was a loser. 

File under: undisciplined day. Trying for what's not there. Maybe some of these would have played right if I had waited for different entry.

Also, fed day today, so don't expect followthrough?

easy come easy go

Great opening trade on UBER. Got that first opening surge. Nice gainers. But then I tried again off vwap (not a bad idea)... and didn't take it off when it failed the new high (definitely a bad idea). Gave it all back. 

Decent Monday

Market inside open after a really strong day Friday. I need to get back into the routine of annotating, logging, journaling.

WYNN gapping into a tangle of mas, so be picky. I thought I got a good entry, but it still gave me a little worry before launching. I trailed below pl target, then trailed tightly as market was simultaneously downtrend.

ROKU, similar to WYNN setup, but ROKU is always a tough trade. I dig give a lot of room, but also glad I took the stop eventually. 15% loss is yuck, but it helps that WYNN was green.

AMZN was on the TraderTV sticky note (for long off 100). After initial pop/drop, it did a 1 min bear flag and I took a small short. Missed the last leg, but still got my pl.

Even though I didn't get allllll the money out of all these moves, I got nice money. I'm content. This is a new sentiment where recently I have been kicking myself a lot for missing "more" or not taking stops in retrospect soon enough. But this is clockwork! and I need to keep remembering that my clockwork trading techniques make me a lot of money over time. Stick with the plan.

remember: zigs no zags, and tight spreads only

The trades I take where I try to "give it room" have been largely a mistake. Maybe they do go farther later, but mostly I get stopped out first. Better to take zigs, no zags, and reenter later if it qualifies.

Worst trade of the day, hacking at META for multiple nicks and cuts that left me net red... and then it went without me.

Best trade of the day, SHOP where I took the first leg for +8% and +107%. Then tried again, half size, for +62%. 

Other trade. Too cute!!!#* Tried to short CAT. Spreads were small when I took it but opened up insanely wide so I couldn't fill at target and then ... guess what I did about stopping?... fml. Still hoping to get out of that not too bad, but not looking good. Another one to consider blacklisting. Can't do these spreads!!!

f'lucky

Very lucky day today.

No great setups. Set my eye on BA for no good reason. NMS. Shorting something strong. I "imagined" there was overhead resistance, and the market was weak, BA pop/dropped in the premkt. Totally idiotic pick. It has wide spreads, the option has insane spreads. Need to blacklist it. 

Market opened strong, BA traded strong. Market weakened, BA didn't weaken. I traded like a total jerk (ignoring stops...). It formed a pennant at the top. It teased down, then shot up for ndh. I held. Out of nowhere (bc testing 150?) it finally fell to pieces and I managed to get out for +10% on first half, then held the back half too long as it retested vwap (bounced halfway back). So took the second half for +10%, given the chance, but then it did make ndl (not shown). Lucky to get out of this even a little green vs painful red.

15 min

Later... 😭

Perfect trades

I'm trying to focus on taking only perfect setups. Yesterday TSM was a great setup, but I jumped too fast, held too long, and then after I took my loss it finally did what I thought. Moral: I should have waited for a more proper setup.

Today, ISRG was great setup, I waited a little, but not enough, for the entry. Had to give a big stop, but then it did go and I got an amazing 131% gainer, including winners in other accounts also. Took those profits toooo soon, but aggressive trading is ONLY for fast_options, and in other accounts I need to take more conservative targets.

Spread on ISRG was very big, so I had to take the stop-limit, having missed a target. Still, helps the account!!